Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the WorldWooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
History
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World
Wooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police -- Illinois -- Chicago
Fill out the coupon at the bottom, and send it to us with
one dollar (and six postage stamps) and enclose a sealed
and stamped letter to either or both of the ladies referred
to above. We will immediately mail your letter to the lady
or ladies, and place your name on our books, and send you a
certificate of membership for six months, and send you the
full names and addresses of the handsome widow of means,
and the handsome blue-eyed maiden of means, and also send
you a list of names and addresses of other ladies of means
and otherwise. And until you are married, or until the
end of six months, we will, on or about the first of each
month, mail you a list of descriptions, names and addresses
of ladies of means and otherwise, without application from
you or any expense to you. We have good reason to believe
that either of the ladies mentioned above would make you a
good wife, but if they do not meet your approval you can
select one who will from the stream of ladies of means
and otherwise who are constantly requesting us to secure
husbands for them, which enables us to introduce you to
those whom you would be pleased to meet with a view to
marriage.
Faithfully yours,
JOHN H. HARRIS.
_Pub. of The Pilot._
JOHN H. HARRIS,
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Sir:
I herewith enclose $1.12 as full payment on the above offer.
Name---- Postoffice----
Street, or Box No---- State----
United States Inspector of Mails at Chicago Postoffice R. W. McAfee
compelled John H. Harris to furnish him with the names and addresses
of the two women heiresses who were worth $40,000 and $500,000,
respectively, who were just dying for the want of a good, kind husband
to spend their money for them, and were seeking marriage through his
paper and matrimonial agency.
[Illustration: (Interest in Science; Marriage)]
Harris gave the name of Mrs. H. R. Adams, at Huntington, Md., as the
$40,000 woman and Jennie Ziehler, Lawrence, Mass., as the $500,000
woman. Upon investigation it was found that neither of the women was
worth a dollar. The $500,000 woman was in the insane asylum.
This letter, together with The Pilot, marriage paper and its printed
advertisements, was plainly intended to draw the unwary and deprive
the ignorant of their savings.
John H. Harris then appealed to ex-Mayor Edward F. Dunne of Chicago,
under the alias of A. Ingird, taxpayer, citizen and reputable business
man, to have Detective Wooldridge stopped from further interfering
with him or his business. Men who operate these frauds pretend to
be honest and high-minded; by constant practice of their wiles upon
others they develop self-deception and come to believe in their own
honesty to such an extent that when questioned they assume a good
counterfeit of honest indignation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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